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LOVE ELEGY
6. PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
Ovid is the last in the series of the Augustan elegists; and it seems the genre
itself was dead long before Ovid's death in exile. His earliest elegies were
collected in five books, the books probably coming out in chronological
sequence, and then published as a whole, it would seem, under the title
Corinna. 1 This edition is lost; Ovid replaced it by another in three books which
is preserved under the title Amores. In the prefatory epigram the poet says that
two books (i.e. a corresponding number of elegies) were suppressed to make
the work more agreeable to read. Most scholars agree that he added some poems,
and attempts have been made to identify them, but the whole problem of
the revision may be more complicated. Thus 2.18 with its clear reference to
the finished tragedy Medea (11. 13—14), the Ars amatoria (11. 19—20) and the
Epistulae Heroidum (11. 21—38) must belong to the second edition. Some of the
elegies can be dated, e.g. 3.9 on the death of Tibullus (shortly after 19 B.C.),
but a poem like this could have been written 'between editions' and then
included in the second one.
Perhaps we can postulate that none of the poems that show the influence of
Propertius' Book 4 (and Amores 3.9 is one of them) was part of the first edition.
This hypothesis is based on two assumptions: (1) Propertius influenced Ovid,
not vice versa; (2) his Book 4 represents a new style, a new artistic achievement,
and therefore a challenge to his younger friend. It has often been observed that
Ovid likes to treat the same theme in two poems, usually separated by other
elegies. The most striking pair is 1.5 and 2.11, both describing the first time
the poet made love to Corinna. This shows how futile any biographical interpretation
of these poems would be. In such a case, one poem may very well
have been kept from the first edition, while the other was written some years
later. Ovid may want to show how he treats the same theme ten or fifteen years
later, as a more experienced craftsman, possible under the influence of Propertius'
late style. To determine which of the two belongs to the second edition we
would have to search for passages that show the influence of Propertius' later
poems. This is not so simple in this case, since neither poem has striking
parallels to the elegies of Propertius' Book 4; only the imagery of 2.12 (the
conquest of a beautiful woman is like a military victory) is close to Propertius
3.8.29—36, whereas no possible Propertian reminiscence in 1.5 seems to lead
beyond Book 2. This would make 2.12 a poem of the second edition, treating
the theme of the earlier 1.5 in Ovid's mature manner. But this is just a hypothesis
which will have to be tested in other cases.
Rome with its streets, its colonnades, its temples and theatres, is the background
of the Amores; only a few poems, e.g. 3.13, take us out of the city, to
1
Luck (1959) i7*ff.
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